It has been fifty years since the United States and Cuba allowed commercial traffic to enter and leave their respective air-spaces. Now, since last Tuesday, a deal signed by the two parties paves the way for the restoration of commercial flights between Cuba and the US. As soon as the deal was signed the US Department of Transportation started the bidding on as many as 110 US-Cuba flights per day by American airline companies. Although there are flights now between the two countries, they are all charter flights.
This decision is the most significant deal between the US and Cuba since the signing of the trade agreement between the two countries by President Obama and Cuban leader Raul Castro in late 2014.
“Today is a historic day in the relationship between Cuba and the U.S.,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx after he and Transportation Minister Adel Yzquierdo Rodriguez of Cuba signed the deal in a ceremony at Havana’s Hotel Nacional. “It represents a critically important milestone in the U.S. effort to engage with Cuba.”